Toast tackles recruiting data storytelling with Greenhouse Report Builder

4 mins, 39 secs read time

New and improved features of Greenhouse Report Builder helped point of sale powerhouse Toast get to hiring data insights faster and more seamlessly.

Whether you’ve ordered a latte online, picked up some tamales at your local farmers market or settled up after a round of beers at your favorite brewery, chances are you’ve interacted with one of Toast’s online ordering or point of sale solutions. Toast prides itself on being flexible and intuitive while delighting its customers.

But as you might expect for a company whose business relies on restaurants, 2020 was quite the roller coaster year for Toast.

We caught up with Lori Busch, Director of TA Operations at Toast, to learn how her team responded to the challenges of 2020 and how Greenhouse Report Builder helped them better tell their talent acquisition story.

The Toast hiring journey in 2020 focused on recovery and innovation

Toast started 2020 in a state of hypergrowth, hiring at a clip of about 130 to 150 people each month. Then the COVID-19 pandemic happened. Restaurants were hit hard initially with forced closures and the transition to takeout/delivery only. These changes accelerated a trend that had been happening for years: the digitization of the restaurant industry.

Throughout the crisis, we’ve witnessed restaurants leveraging our technology in new and innovative ways to survive.

And now, as the company looks to its future, Toast has about 200 open requisitions.

Telling the TA ops story with Report Builder

As the Director of TA Operations, Lori says, “My team is responsible for telling the TA story through analytics.” How does she do this? By digging into data to get a sense of the status quo. She always wants quick answers to questions like how many jobs are open, how many jobs each recruiter is currently responsible for and how many jobs were filled in a given period.

Lori also looks to reporting to provide insights into trending recruiting data. She monitors metrics like the time candidates spend in the funnel, the time to fill a particular role and how various sources are converting.

But Lori was running into some roadblocks with Greenhouse’s previous reporting tools. “I had this problem where this report would be 90% of what I needed. But without this really crucial piece of information, I couldn’t actually get to what I wanted,” says Lori. As a result, she ended up trying to hack together various reports. Lori would also feed data into Greenhouse integration technology partner Looker, but it was often subject to lags. This was especially frustrating when she had a meeting with a stakeholder and had to spend agonizing moments waiting for Looker to update or load.

When Greenhouse launched the all-new Report Builder in October 2020, it was a game-changer for Lori. “Thanks to the new version of Report Builder, we can now pull a lot of reporting ourselves directly out of Greenhouse.”

Getting exactly the right recruiting data, right when you need it

Now Lori no longer has to spend time stitching together separate reports. Report Builder provides a seamless and stress-free approach to analytics. “You can customize it in the way that you have the job fields that you need, you have the candidate fields that you need and you have the offer fields that you need. The different types of reports are super helpful depending on what you're looking for.” For example, Lori often looks at hire information and accepted offers while filtering it by source. She says this information helps her team understand where hires are coming from and which sources are converting.

Saving time and keeping stakeholders happy

Lori says the auto-refresh feature is one of her favorite aspects of the new Report Builder. “Now everything connects directly to the report connector. There’s no need to export and upload – it just live feeds into the reports that I need.” This saves Lori about two hours a week.

Plus, she’s now prepared to field any questions stakeholders throw her way. She no longer has to worry about trying to pull up Looker during a meeting or in response to an ad hoc request. She can quickly access all the answers she needs right within Greenhouse.

Lori’s tips for Report Builder success

To make the most out of Report Builder, Lori recommends other Greenhouse users spend time familiarizing themselves with all the fields and template reports that are available. She also suggests subscribing to the weekly product update emails from the Greenhouse team.

When you’re just starting out on your reporting journey, Lori says, “Figure out who the stakeholders are that you’ll be sharing reporting with.” Then you’ll be able to determine which fields and reports will help you answer their most common questions. Lori finds offer acceptance rate is a good metric to start with. You can get a baseline for how you’re doing and then begin comparing it quarter over quarter. When you’re ready, dig deeper into the top recruiting key performance indicators to elevate your hiring strategy.

What’s next for Toast?

Toast is now growing to tackle the renewed demand from customers. And with Greenhouse Report Builder, Lori can pull whatever recruiting data she needs with speed and accuracy. Now that she’s confident in her team’s reporting capabilities, Lori would love to lean more into predicting future performance. Stay tuned for more updates from the Toast team – we know we can't wait to hear what’s next.

Find out how Greenhouse Report Builder can help you achieve your most ambitious goals.

Find out now